BROADWAY NATION

The art and a craft of creating Broadway Musicals has been passed down directly from one artist to the next, generation to generation, for more than 125 years. We can literally trace the first-hand connections between composers, lyricists, bookwriters, directors, producers and performers from the earliest days of the musical right up to those working on Broadway today. In this episode and the next...

Most historians have labeled the entire period from the 1920’s through the 1960’s, “The Golden Age of Broadway”, but I find it much more useful to call the era that spans from the end of WWI to the opening of Carousel in 1945, “The Silver Age of Broadway”. During this vibrant time more than 300 musical comedies, operettas, and revues opened on Broadway, and overwhelmingly they were the creation of...

Women have played a much more significant role in the history of the Broadway Musical than they are generally given credit for. In this episode, I share the often overlooked stories of Broadway's groundbreaking female choreographers, including Aida Overton Walker, Gertrude Hoffman, Albertina Rauch, Hanya Holm, Onna White, and especially Agnes DeMille, who may be the most important woman in the his...

Women have had a much more significant impact on the Broadway Musical than has generally been reported or acknowledged. In fact, talented, dynamic women have been a major force in the creation and development of the American musical theater from the very beginning and right up to today. In this episode my special guest Albert Evans and I will share the often overlooked stories of songwriters and b...

From its earliest days, the Broadway Musical has to a very large degree, been a Queer creation. In this episode David Armstrong shares the fascinating stories of early queer producing and life partners Charles Frohman and Charles Dillingham; the first great gay director Hassard Short; drag superstars Julian Eltinge & Bert Savoy; the "Pansy Craze"; and the delightful, delicious and delovely Cole Po...

In this episode David Armstrong and special quest Albert Evans continue the amazing story of how Jewish, Irish and other immigrants invented the Broadway Musical -- including the immortal contributions of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, McCarthy & Tierney, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, and Florenz Ziegfeld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, host David Armstrong, along with special guest, Albert Evans, begin to tell the amazing story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, and African-Americans invented America's signature art form -- the Broadway Musical. The Broadway Musical was born around the turn of the last century and it emerged out of what we used to call “the melting pot” – that simmering confluence of cultures and...